Russian president to meet with Slovak leaders.

BRATISLAVA, April 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Visiting Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev on Wednesday will hold talks with his Slovak counterpart Ivan
Gasperovic.
The two presidents will first meet tete-a-tete, and then will be
joined by delegations of the two countries. The talks will be crowned by
signing a number of agreements and contracts, including the ones on
cooperation in the areas of nuclear power generation and transportation,
and on cooperation between the two countries' secret services.
During the visit, the parties will address issues related to the 65th
anniversary of the Victory in WWII. Medvedev and Gasparovich will hand out
state awards to Russian and Slovak veterans who took part in liberation
operations in Slovakia. The two leaders will also lay wreaths to the
monument to Soviet soldiers on the Slavin hill, where some 7,000 Soviet
soldiers are buried.
Apart from this, Medvedev is planned to hand over to Gasparovic copies
of Russian archive documents on joint Russian-Slovak struggle against
fascism.
The visit's agenda also includes meetings with Slovak Prime Minister
Robert Fico and parliament speaker Pavol Paska.
After the visit to Slovakia the Russian president will leave for
Prague to meet with US President Barack Obama and sign a new strategic
arms reduction treaty, and to meet with Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

.Russian, Polish prime ministers to discuss bilateral relations.

MOSCOW, April 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin of
Russia and Donald Tusk of Poland on Wednesday will meet in the Russian
city of Smolensk to discuss ways to create favourable climate in bilateral
relations, the Russian governmental press service told Itar-Tass.
After visiting the Katyn memorial the two prime ministers will hold
talks on the entire range of the Russian-Polish relations, and
international issues of mutual interest.
Poland is one of Russia's key trade partners ranking tenth in its
foreign trade turnover. In 2009, Poland accounted for 3.6 percent of
Russia's foreign trade. The Russian-Polish trade has been on the rise in
the recent years. Thus, in 2008, the bilateral trade turnover went up by
51.8 percent to reach 27.3 billion U.S. dollars. However, unfavourable
world economic situation in the wake of the global crisis told negatively
on the bilateral economic cooperation. In 2009, the trade turnover shrank
1.6-fold on the previous year and totalled 16.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Russia's overall investments into the Polish economy exceed 1.85 billion
U.S. dollars.
Russia's key investors into Poland's economy are the national gas
utility Gazprom (construction of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline to the
total amount of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) and oil major LUKoil (some 230
million U.S. dollars). A number of companies with 100 percent Russian
capital, such as LUKoil-Poland and Leda, are active on the Polish market.
Poland's investments in Russia amount to some 544.3 million U.S. dollars.
The biggest project with Polish participation (construction of a clipboard
plant) was implemented by the company Grajewo in Novgorod Veliky.

.Ukraine, Kazakhstan presidents to discuss bilateral cooperation.

KIEV, April 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich
will pay a one-day official visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday to discuss
with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev a wide range of issues,
including cooperation in power engineering and aerospace areas.
"The Ukrainian president's visit will give a fresh impetus to the
bilateral trade and economic relations stalled by the world financial and
economic crisis," a source in the Kazakh embassy in Kiev told Itar-Tass.
According to the Ukrainian customs service, trade turnover between the
two countries shrank by 70 percent in January-February as compared with
the same period last year to 207 million U.S. dollars from last year's 679
million U.S. dollars. Ukrainian exports total 156 million U.S. dollars, or
25 percent less than in January-February 2009. Kazakhstan's imports of
energy carriers dropped likewise.
The Ukrainian president has already announced his plans to discuss
with Nazarbayev prospects for cooperation in the gas sphere, and
participation of the two countries in the Russian GLONASS satellite
navigation project.
In early 2010, Kazakhstan expressed disagreement to Ukraine's
intention to raise tariffs for oil piping via its territory and rearranged
transit routes via Poland. Kazakh companies' order for Ukrainian-made
An-148 aircraft has not been implemented so far.
In 2009, Ukraine reduced its exports to Kazakhstan by 22.6 percent
against 2008 to 1.418 billion U.S. dollars. Imports from Kazakhstan went
down by 34.8 percent to reach 2.034 billion U.S. dollars.
-0-ras


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